Could Oracle Acquire Salesforce.com? Will IBM or HP Buy SAP?

Tuesday Dec 21st 2010 by -

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This list of IT predictions for 2011 suggests that these enterprise app
vendor acquisitions could be reality next year.

The Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) platform, Force.com, is powered by Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and its Apex programming language has roots in Oracle-owned Java. As
mentioned in this list of 10 IT predictions for 2011, Computer World says the rumor that Oracle will buy
on-demand software vendor Salesforce.com will come true -- potentially enabling Salesforce.com to strike global deals for CRM and its social applications.
Other predictions indicate a possible acquisition of SAP (NYSE: SAP). According to the report, SAP is among the last big stand-alone business apps vendors and it could be snapped up by IBM (NYSE: IBM) or HP (NYSE: HPQ).

"The perennial rumor that Oracle will buy on-demand software vendor Salesforce.com will come true. Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison have a long history, marked of late by public acrimony that belies the fact that Benioff once worked for Ellison.

"Salesforce.com's Force.com platform is powered by Oracle's database and its Apex programming language has roots in Oracle-owned Java. Salesforce.com also has something Oracle doesn't: Tens of thousands of small to medium-size companies as customers of its CRM (customer relationship management) software. In turn, Oracle's ownership would give Salesforce.com greater cachet in the largest enterprises, potentially enabling it to strike global deals for CRM and its emerging portfolio of complementary, social-enabled applications."